Fifty years later, it is still the most impressive bunker shot in golf history, mainly because of its location.
The moon.
Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard and his crew returned about 90 pounds of moon rocks on February 6, 1971. Two golf balls were left behind that Shepard, who later described the lunar surface as “one big sandbox,” with an improvised 6-iron to become a footnote in history.
Francis Ouimet put golf on the front page of American newspapers by winning the US Open in 1913. Gene Sarazen put the Masters on the map by shooting a 235-meter shot at an albatross in the last round of his 1935 victory.
Shepard outdid them all. He placed wave in space.
“Maybe he put golf on the lunar map,” said Jack Nicklaus this week. “I thought it was unique to the game of golf that Shepard thought so much about the game that he would take a golf club to the moon and hit a shot.”
Shepard became the first American in space in 1961 as one of NASA’s seven original Mercury astronauts. After being sidelined for years due to an inner ear problem, he became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 14.
But he did more than just walk on the moon.
Shepard waited for the mission to end before surprising American viewers and all but a few at NASA who didn’t know what Shepard had in store – or, in this case, his socks. That’s how he got the golf equipment into space.
Houston, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the unforeseen monster back; there just happens to be a real 6 iron on the bottom, ”Shepard said. “In my left hand I have a small white pellet that millions of Americans know.”
He hit more moon than ball on his first two tries. He later called the third a shaft. And he caught the last flush, or as flush as an astronaut can hit a golf ball while with one hand waving in a space under pressure which weighs 180 pounds (on earth).
“We always said it was the longest recording in the history of the world because it hasn’t happened yet,” said famous golf instructor Butch Harmon with a laugh.
Harmon is loosely linked to the photo through his relationship with Jack Harden Sr., the former lead pro at the River Oaks Country Club in Houston, who asked Shepard to build him a 6-iron that he could take to the moon. . Harden managed to attach the head of a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6 iron to a folding tool used to collect lunar samples.
The shots came on the moon. Still up for debate is how far they went.
“Miles and miles and miles,” Shepard said in a light moment was broadcast in color on a fixed television audience of nearly 240,000 miles away watching.
Not quite. The shot for years has been estimated at 200 meters, remarkable given that most of his spacesuit restricted Shepard’s movement. He’d even been practicing in his spacesuit in a Houston bunker when no one was around.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary, the British image specialist Andy Saunders gave a more accurate account. Saunders, who is working on a book called “Apollo Remastered”, worked out digital enhancement and video stacking techniques that the first shot was 24 meters long. The second ball went 40 yards.
Former PGA Champion Jimmy Walker hits an iron from about 200 yards on Earth. Walker, an aerospace enthusiast with a skill and passion for astrophotography, teamed up with the USGA and Saunders as the Apollo 14 anniversary approached to see how far he could hit a 6-iron in one-sixth of the Moon’s gravity.
“He was known for saying miles and miles,” Walker said. “They took my launch conditions and said my ball would fly 4600 yards and it would have a little over a minute of hang time.”
That would be a little over 2 1/2 miles.
That would also be a conventional iron 6 with golf shoes and a sweater vest on.
What all these years later is striking is that Shepard even to think about a golf club to the moon and return. The inspiration came from Bob Hope, who carried a golf club almost everywhere. That included a trip to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, a year before the Apollo 14 mission.
According to USGA historian Michael Trostel was what Shepard did realize that a golf shot would be the perfect illustration of the gravity of the moon. To build a club, he found the right person in Harden near River Oaks.
“He was constantly tinkering with equipment,” said Brandel Chamblee, an analyst at Golf Channel and an old friend of Harden’s son. I would tease Jack and his dad, every club they got was ‘hardened’. No club off the rack was ever good enough for them. They always changed the lie, the loft, the resilience. They used lead tape. It was good that he made Shepard’s 6 iron. “
It took some effort to convince his superiors. In a 1998 interview with NASA, Shepard said he had his idea shown by the director of the Manned Spaceflight Center, who told him, “Absolutely not.” Shepard told him that club and two golf balls would cost the taxpayer nothing. And he would only do it if the whole mission was a great success.
Shepard said he told Director Bob Gilruth, “I’m not going to be so frivolous. I want to wait for the end of the mission, stand in front of the television camera, hit these golf balls with this makeshift club, fold it up, put it in my pocket, climb up the ladder and close the door, and we’re gone. “
The actual club is one of the award shows at the USGA Museum in New Jersey, and that came with an awkward moment.
“He donates it at a ceremony at the 1974 US Open,” said Trostel. NASA later called him and said it was looking for the club for the Smithsonian. He said he had already donated it to the USGA Museum. They said, ‘Mr. Shepard, that’s government property. “We had a replica made and given it to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. ”
For years, no one knew what golf balls he was using and Shepard was determined to avoid any commercialism. Chamblee and Harmon unlocked the mystery this week, and it came with a twist.
They were River Oaks balls.
“Within the Hardens, the legacy is that he gave him golf balls from the range with ‘Property of Jack Harden’ on it,” said Chamblee. “Technically – if the balls haven’t melted – Jack is the only person who owns properties on the moon.”
All because of a one-handed swing from Shepard, still the only person to hit a golf ball on the moon.
“It was meant to be fun,” Shepard said in the 1998 interview, five months before his death at the age of 74. “Fortunately, it’s still a fun thing.”